DIY Fairy Pond Charms with Polymer Clay

Fairy gardens gain an extra boost of enchantment when you make your own miniature accessories. To get you started, this tutorial walk you through how to make tiny lily pads for a fairy pond. It’s an excellent beginner project and, once you see how fast and easy it is, I think you’ll want to try lots more polymer clay projects.

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Save Money, Add Charm

Fairy garden accessories are not particularly expensive until you realize it takes lots of them to make a fabulous scene. Once you see how truly easy it is to make charms from polymer clay, I’m sure you’ll want to give it a try.

These are also great projects for older kids who enjoy this sort of thing. And, if they don’t want to make these miniatures, there are tons of sweet tutorials on YouTube showing how to make all sorts of neat items (video game characters, tiny cookies and cupcakes, and anything else you can dream up).

Understanding Scale

The secret to a great looking fairy garden is to pay attention to scale. Unfortunately, many you find for sale do not conform to any particular scale and a fairy garden or dollhouse setting can end up looking really odd because nothing seems to go together. An oversized chair looks goofy next to a too-small table. You want everything to be in proper proportion to everything else the same way it is in our own homes and gardens.

A classic scale is 1:12. This mean each accessory is 1″ for every 12″ (foot) the same item would be in real life. For example, if a real lily pad is 12″ wide (one foot), a fairy garden lily pad should be one inch wide.

Pay attention to scale with every miniature you make or buy and your little world will look so much better.

Step 1

Roll out one, small ball of green polymer clay for each lily pad. I did them in 4 different sizes.

Polymer clay warms up very quickly in your hands. You don’t want to overwork it. Each of these balls took under 10 seconds to shape.

Step 2

Press each ball flat into a circle.

If you notice any cracks around the edges of the clay, it’s either not warm enough or too dry. Work it some more and try again.

Step 3

Cut a small triangle out of each lily pad. Start each cut around the middle of the pad.
I use an old paint scraper to make cuts and slices. You can also use a razor blade (with a safety edge) or utility knife.

Step 4

Use a bamboo skewer (or something with a fine tip) to make score lines through the lily pads. These represent the veins in the leaves.

Step 5

Scrape off some yellow and brown chalk from the pastels (I use an old cutlery knife).

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About Melissa J. Will

Melissa J. Will is a home and garden blogger (writer, photographer, artist) from Ontario, Canada. Favourite obsessions include repurposed DIY projects and tutorials, organic gardening, creative garden ideas, debt-free living, nature (what more is there?), and sustainable living—all with a dash of humour and side order of freshly-grown salad greens.

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Melissa Will is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

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